Stem Cell Therapy For Head Injuries

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has remained a major cause of mortality, morbidity and leading cause of large-scale disabilities worldwide. TBI results in a large number of deaths and a cause of permanent disabilities with enormous losses to individuals, families, and communities [1]. World Health Organization (WHO), in 2004, has estimated that 25% of road traffic collisions requiring admission to a hospital suffered TBI [13]. Pathophysiology of TBI involves two main phases: these are primary injury following the trauma, and the secondary injury which is mediated by inflammatory response to trauma.
However, no effective therapy or program is available for treatment of individuals with TBI; nonetheless, researchers had tried some therapeutic agents like levodopa/carbidopa and some neurotrophic factors in brain injury with persistent vegetative state with the aim of augmenting and slowing the progression from persistent vegetative state into some degree of consciousness. This still needs experimentation to confirm if these dopamine precursors and other neurotrophic factors have any role in TBI.
Solomon O. Ugoya and Jian Tu from Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University; and Technology Place, North Ryde, Sydney, Australia, respectively, have stated that Neural stem cells (NSCs) have recently been shown to contribute to the cellular re-modeling that occurs following TBI and attention has been drawn to the area of neural stem cell as possible therapy for TBI. The NSCs may play an important role in the treatment of TBI by replacing the damaged cells and eventual remyelination. They also pointed out that they can achieve the translation of basic knowledge of neural stem cells into therapeutic options in persons with TBI by enhancing and integrating these neural progenitor cells (NPCs) unto neurogenesis and directing these cells to the specified targets or through multi-potency where the transplanted cells can differentiate into glial cells, neurons, and endothelial cells, as the i confirm if these dopamine precursors and other neurotrophic factors have any role in TBI.
Solomon O. Ugoya and Jian Tu from Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University; and Technology Place, North Ryde, Sydney, Australia, respectively, have stated that Neural stem cells (NSCs) have recently been shown to contribute to the cellular re-modeling that occurs following TBI and attention has been drawn to the anjuries are not always selective but diffuse and we may need to induce these transplanted cells into appropriate phenotype.
Neural stem cell therapy is a strategy that offers hope in the future for treatment of brain injury. In addition, we are now able to monitor autologous neural stem cells in vivo, cell migration and clearly demonstrate that neural stem cells could selectively target injured brain or spinal cord tissue and undergo neurogenesis.
Recently, more attention has been drawn to the area of stem cell therapy, largely due to advanced knowledge about stem cells. The stem cells may play an important role in the treatment of TBI by replacing damaged cells, and helping functional recovery. The search for stem cell therapy for TBI is progressing.